16 June, 2009

Tom has worked for months to find a mill in the US that can make cotton handlebar tape. Once he found one we went through a series of prototypes to get the weight, weave, and adhesive just right. Now, after dozens of prototype rolls, we're ready to start having it made. Here are some details.

It's USA made exclusively for VO.

The rolls are 10-feet long. That's longer than is standard so you can get a closer wrap or use it on mustache bars.

The three easy colors that we'll definitely order are black, white, and natural or un-dyed (a light tan) since those are dye colors the mill always has on hand.

We can any have any other color made; all that's required is the Pantone code for the color we want. But it will take six months to bring the color on-line and the minimum orders are substantial.

So the big question is what colors should we have made. I only want to start with just a few to see how this goes. It makes no sense to replicate Tressostar colors; only new colors will do. We've been thinking of light blue, dark green, and gold, but we're more than happy to consider suggestions. What colors would you like to see?

Also, fixed gear wheel sets are back in stock. Shimano 105/CR-18 wheels should be back late next week. And we will have a new Strumey Archer 3-speed/CR-18 rear wheel soon.

Asking for color suggestions on this blog is like.....You may get some useful info, but then again you'll probably get the Crayola box of 64 mixture.I suggest you look to the stock vintage colors used by past builders/painters that have stood the test of time and offer about 5-10 proven winners.Of course, I'm partial to two of the classic colors-"black and dark black"

Naturally colored cotton comes in those two colors. I'd ask if the mill can get the naturally colored version. (no, it's *not* cheap) There aren't a lot of farmers growing it, but the cotton is really nice to handle and spin, and should make for a very durable product.

I second the call for purple/burgundy. I have an old velosport with a marroon/burgundy saddle to which I have been trying to match bartape in vain for a while.a medium brown (darker than milk chocolate, lighter than 70% chocolate) would also be nice

I wonder if there are possibilities of choosing based on low-toxicity of the dyes--when I've looked at dying things, the MSDS sheets look horrible. Probably not a problem for the user, but the manufacture of the dye and the application of the dye must involve exposure and or risk of exposure for the workers and the environment.

RIT dye landed me on oral steroids for a month. Be careful with that stuff. I stupidly didn't wear gloves once when I was hand dying a shirt and the next day my eyes were swollen shut (think Rocky Balboa).

Chris, all of the colors you mentioned in the blog sound good. To them, I would add the purple/burgundy, lilac/periwinkle (OK, I like purple), terra cotta, (which someone else mentioned), crimson/scarlet and a gray like that of the Berthoud bags. (BTW: You should offer VO bags in that color.) And, of course orange. You could do an Eddy Mercx-type orange and a more amberish hue of orange, which would shellac nicely.

Mixed threads using leftovers could be really beautiful. A la Japanese zanshi cloth.

From SRI Threads: "Zanshi ori is a type of cloth that utilizes leftover yarns from various spools; the leftovers are generally used for the weft yarns, while the warp yarns are set in a standard fashion."

A good light chocolate brown--I second that! Goes with any of the warm colors--I use it on both my orange bike and my brown (Rustoleum "anodized bronze") bike, but the stuff i can find (Cateye or Tresso) is too light.

A tasteful oxblood hue would be wonderful as well. Imagine a nice randoneuse in red and cream with honey saddle and oxblood tape!

Sad to see there aren't that many suggestions for shades of blue. I'd like a medium blue or slightly darker. The light blue I've used before did not shellac well at all and was not any shade of blue after shellacing. At any rate, blue, blue, blue.

a red wine colour burgundy i know this shade was already commented on but hopefully theres a pattern for a stylish and pleasing colour starting to take on it's a hue you dont see that often but would look good on alot of retro builds

Too echo previous posts; Orange, terra cota, lilac, salmon, and pea green. The natural that is already planned sounds great! The extra length too. I would also pay extra for organic cotton, the chemicals used on the conventional grown and processed crops are intense.

As someone said above, a near match to the green used by Brooks would be great. There's nothing prettier imo than a very pale light grayish blue rando with dark green saddle and bars! (See here - not my bike unfortunately - http://www.flickr.com/photos/28101304@N08/sets/72157605858042173/ )

Oh, and a note for the people who want burgundy/purple tape: using garnet shellac on bright red tape results in a lovely burgundy. For the people who want to match their honey Brooks: you can get that effect with amber or garnet shellac over yellow or white tape, depending on how old and dark your saddle has become.

Another vote for unbleached/vegetable-dyed and organic. I would pay a premium, as would many others. Failing that, avocado/matcha-green would be nice, as would a tape made from recycled/rag cotton. For reference, check out these socks from Muji.

Will this tape be closer in texture to the tressotar style or to the much plusher and (imo) comfier Cat-Eye and Viva tapes?

I realize that a lot of work has gone into this project already but after giving it a little more thought it only makes sense that hemp tape is the logical extension of the VO bar line: Montmartre bars with "Montparnasse" or "Vingt-sept" tape (or "Toklas" if you must abandon any sense of subtlty or pretension).

Can you get them in sparkle? I found a couple of rolls of sparkly green plastic tape in a sale bin, years ago, and some sparkly cotton would be interesting. I suppose I could raid the daughters' craft cupboard and add sparkles to shellac. I will let you know how that goes--a friend says "sparkles are the herpes of crafting--once you get them, you are never really free of them..."M Burdge

You should sell bar tape,cloth and leather as well as VO brake lever hoods in colors that match brooks saddles. If you were to sell VO saddles in another color, say red or maroon you could supply matching bar material and hoods as well.

You could convince those middle age hipsters who have been dicking around with shellac for years after reading about it in the middle earth newsletter to buy new levers and tape to match their leather saddles. What are you going to do after you've shellaced both chainstays? You'll need a new project. VO brake levers with hoods and tape to match your saddles. Yes, that's what the world needs. Maching shoes!

The dyes typically used for cotton are fiber reactive dyes. They're Not Nice, from a chemical standpoint. If you take sensible precautions, they're pretty safe. MSDS can make any chemical sound worse than horrors out of Lovecraft. The big risk with most dyes is that the dye powder is an inhalation risk. You also don't want to apply dye to mucous membranes or ingest it.

The vegetable dye suggestion is not one I can get behind. Certain vegetable dyes will self-mordant on cotton, but in general it's a cast iron bitch of a problem involving chrome, copper or iron salts and a lot of KOH. The toxicity problems and waste disposal problems are pretty serious, and we haven't really come up with good technology to deal with them. And for large scale use, there are bigger problems because most dye plants are somewhat toxic and large monocultures of toxic plants is usually not the world's brightest idea. They're also massively invasive in a lot of temperate climates. Fun stuff.

That's why I voted for the naturally colored cotton. I've done a lot of dyeing and handspinning cotton, and the naturally colored stuff is a lot easier to handle.